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Well, more specifically, Amazon did. With a Kindle book, I can read it on any device (Kindle preferred, of course; love its display), can access my books anywhere with an Internet connection, and can even put documents I want to read on my devices onto my Kindle/cloud/etc by e-mail. Their implementation is rock-solid, and their main device feels just like reading a book to me.

At this point, I'm only upgrading for the unified search (not for online, but so apps/files/settings show up in the same blasted window). But now I'm hesitant to even go that far. Am I missing any "please let us have your data" steps?

...that doesn't want to upgrade to 8.1? It's a free upgrade and, as far as I'm aware, doesn't make any changes for the worse. The only thing I can think of is "local searches are sent to Bing," but since that's easily disabled, I can't think of a reason not to upgrade if you're already running on 8.

I dunno if I agree, necessarily. After all, we are talking about an operating system here. Dealing with files and what processes are running are supposed to be the bread-and-butter of an OS, to make our lives easier. They're not whiz-bang eye-catching features that marketing teams like to advertise, but boy do the improve the user experience.

Agreed, taking steps backwards is never a good thing. I still really can't recommend anyone do an upgrade to Windows 8. However, when getting a new machine and planning to put a Windows OS on it? I'd say 8 (the performance and under-the-hood buffs are nothing to sneeze at, in my experience).

The biggest thing is the fact that you can search all sections (Apps, Settings, Files) with a single search bar now. No more having to type, mouse-move, click, and then find the option I want! Plus, you can disable the "also search Bing" nonsense, thankfully.

I already run using 0 Metro apps, and live mostly in the Desktop space (truth be told, due to my Windows Key + type letters + hit 'enter' style of start menu usage, the start screen doesn't bother me). I'm glad I'll be able to boot straight to desktop, which will further distance myself from the Metro experience.

Do Not Track was silly, being opt-in and so on. And, surprise surprise, advertisers backed out when it started getting turned on by default. Now a fire is lit under their hindquarters since Firefox and Safari (and hopefully others) will simply do away with third party cookie support altogether. Taking away an advertiser's tracking tools is the best way to fight.

FAFSA does not require IE. It throws big scary warnings about browser incompatibility at the user, but it does not stop you from continuing in Firefox or Chrome. I filed FAFSA from 2006-2009 in not-IE without issue.